Mental Health and Prescription Drug 'Tranquilizers'

"[In their first year on the market in the 1960s benzodiazepine, described by their pharmaceutical producer as safe and effective as an alternative to barbiturates] the first report in the medical literature describing their addictive nature was published."
"There is a serious lack of physicians [in Canada] who are willing to do tapers and no accessible community-based resources where people can get help [with their addiction to 'benzos'."
"By the way, benzos are also sold on the street and widely used by heroin addicts and alcoholics."
Janet Currie, Canadian researcher, educator, doctoral candidate, University of British Columbia School of Nursing

"Dad was put on a low dose of a benzodiazepine a few years ago for anxiety following an extremely severe autoimmune reaction to food. He took the medication as prescribed. We weren’t aware that he was developing a physical dependence on the drug until last April when my mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer and the dose of the medication increased.  It became apparent that he was experiencing a paradoxical reaction to the medication, meaning the benzos did the opposite of what they’re supposed to do. These reactions are rare but are not unheard of."
"The worst symptom for dad was akathisia. Akathisia is an absolutely god awful condition where the person feels an incredible, irresistible restlessness, and an inability to sit still. It was so severe he was suicidal."
"For the last six months he’s been in horrible, unbearable discomfort from this drug, made worse when trying to remove it because of the physical dependence. We took him to several hospitals in North America where he experienced multiple cases of misdiagnosis, and the addition of more medications to cover the response he was experiencing from the benzodiazepines. He nearly died several times."
"In early January my dad, my husband, my daughter, and I flew to Russia. To make matters worse he was diagnosed with a fever and pneumonia in both lungs upon arrival. He was put into an induced coma for eight days and had the most horrific withdrawal I’ve ever read or heard about. He almost died from what the medical system did to him in the West. The doctors here aren’t influenced by the pharmaceutical companies, don’t believe in treating symptoms caused by medications, by adding in more medications and have the guts to medically detox someone from benzodiazepines."
"So, finally Dad is on the mend. His sense of humour is back. He’s smiling again for the first time in months, but he has a long way to go to recover fully. He spent four weeks in the ICU, he has neurological damage from the benzodiazepines, which is hopefully temporary."
"He’s still taking anti-seizure medication, and he can’t type or walk steadily yet. Still, this is a vast and rapid improvement. Last week he couldn’t sit up without help. The week before that he couldn’t lift an arm or speak."
Mikhaila Peterson, February 7, 2020 

Prof. Jordan Peterson in March 2018.   Craig Robertson/Postmedia

Benzodiazepines belong to the prescription sedative class of drugs. Although benzodiazepines have a calming effect, they are highly addictive, and a person who abuses them faces a host of symptoms. Some of the physical, psychological, and behavioral symptoms of benzodiazepine abuse include:

• Weakness
• Blurred vision
• Drowsiness
• Poor judgment or thinking
• Doctor shopping
• Asking friends, family, colleagues, and/or classmates for their benzodiazepine pills
• Wanting to cut back on the volume of abuse but not being able to do so
• Mood changes
• Risk-taking behaviors, such as driving after abusing benzodiazepines
• Combining benzodiazepines with alcohol or other drugs

Due to the natural process of building a tolerance, over time, a person will require a higher volume of benzodiazepines to reach the familiar high. When the abuse stops or the familiar dose is significantly cut down, withdrawal symptoms will emerge. Benzodiiazepine withdrawal can be particularly dangerous and even life-threatening. Undergoing medical detox under the direct care of a doctor is generally advised.
American Addiction Centers

In 1966, a woman by the name of Joan Gadsby who was a municipal official in British Columbia lost her young son to brain cancer. Her grief and subsequent depression theatened to consume her, until she was prescribed the "tranquilizer" drug benzodiazepine. She soon became addicted to the drug and its various side effects made her extremely ill. She brought a lawsuit against her prescribing doctor, but the case was lost even while the prosecution used all her retirement savings. She decided not to leave the situation at that point, but instead became an expert on drug over- and mis-use.

She wrote a definitive book on the subject, "Addiction by Prescription", and is generally acknowledged as the expert she became, so much so that she was given an honourary doctorate in view of the expertise she had attained and her focus on educating both the medical community and the lay public on the over-prescription of medications that have the very real potential to make people far more ill than they were before they were prescribed medication.

Pharmaceutical companies are not that interested in public health; they are focused on the sale of their patent-protected drugs, and in persuading the medical community of the efficacy of those drugs. When benzodiazepine was introduced to the modern pharmacopoeia, the medical community was assured it was non-addictive, a familiar old ploy seen more recently with opioid-alikes like fentanyl. It has been on the market for 60 years, under the names Ativan, Serax, Klonopin, Xanas, and most famous of all Vallium, among others.

They were originally marketed as a safer alternative to barbiturates, but that screen was soon enough shunted aside when its true nature as an addictive drug was revealed. Its use now, however, is pervasive. And instances of things going dreadfully wrong with its use, brought into public focus by the recently-revealed plight of Professor Jordan Peterson, Psychologist of note at University of Toronto, and public speaker of international renown, are not generally very well known.

An estimated 15 percent of adults may currently be prescribed the drug, roughly 65 percent of whom are women and the vast majority of those using the drugs as prescribed are likely to become hugely dependent on them, experiencing difficulties attempting to withdraw from their use. According to Canadian and international studies, 20 to 50 percent of all women over age 60 may be prescribed benzos or sleeping pills; long-term use of which increases with advancing age.

Moreover, a strong link has been established between elderly women taking these drugs, "of which 90 percent are benzodiapezines" and the issue of falling, which becomes swiftly catastrophic to the earlier mortality of these women as they age. A 2000 report stated that "one in three status Aboriginal women over 40 in Western Canada were prescribed benzodiazepines". This is a drug that is not meant for long-term use. When prescribed they should be taken for a course of mere weeks, and in carefully calibrated dosages.

Dr. Peterson suffered a situation where a "prescribing cascade" took place when withdrawal symptoms fail to be associated with benzos, resulting in more drugs being prescribed, and the outcome becomes even more deleterious than the condition of the patient when benzos were first prescribed. Prescribing doctors should be prepared to monitor their patients prescribed this drug, and to help them taper off the drug, meaning the process of gradually weaning a patient off a drug by incrementally lowered dosage, a process which can take months or years.

It's extremely difficult to sue pharmaceutical companies and doctors for malpractise. Pharmaceuticals have very deep financial resources and even deeper motivation in comparison to anything private citizens can muster, for legal costs. In the United Kingdom a class-action lawsuit through Britain's Legal Aid Funding Plan was undertaken, involving 14,000 patients and 1,800 lawyers. The group lawsuit failed for the simple reason that insufficient funds were available to pursue the already-year-long commitment for legal aid services to continue.

Benzodiazepines are a type of medication known as tranquilizers. Familiar names include Valium and Xanax. They are some of the most commonly prescribed medications in the United States. When people without prescriptions obtain and take these drugs for their sedating effects, use turns into abuse.
Doctors may prescribe a benzodiazepine for the following legitimate medical conditions:

• Anxiety
• Insomnia
• Alcohol withdrawal
• Seizure control
• Muscle relaxation
• Inducing amnesia for uncomfortable procedures
• Given before an anesthetic (such as before surgery)

Benzodiazepines act on the central nervous system, produce sedation and muscle relaxation, and lower anxiety levels.
Although more than 2,000 different benzodiazepines have been produced, only about 15 are currently FDA-approved in the United States. They are usually classified by how long their effects last.
WebMD